Habitats and Biodiversity About

Description

Freshwater biodiversity is the rich variety of plants and animals that live in rivers, streams, lakes and other wetlands.

Why monitor freshwater biodiversity for interventions on freshwater ecosystems?

The monitoring of biological communities offers a means of holistic environmental appraisal to detect impairment, because these integrate the physical and chemical aspects of their immediate environment over time.

Traditionally, freshwater monitoring programmes undertook routine or “surveillance” monitoring of key pollutants of concern primarily for drinking water quality. Over the last 50 years, the monitoring of freshwater quality has evolved from simple chemical analysis of water samples through to the use of a multitude of chemical, physical, and biological metrics developed to comprehensively indicate the condition of water bodies. As our understanding of these systems developed along with the problems associated with algal blooms caused by excessive plant nutrients to freshwater systems from either agricultural or domestic sources, these nutrients and other factors associated with the biological health of freshwater systems were also monitored. The use of biological indicators in monitoring marks a conceptual transition from single parameter assessments towards an evaluation of ecologically relevant change. (Source:Biomonitoring of Singapore's Freshwater Ecosystems)

In a growing number of cases, the objective of the intervension itself may be to restore local freshwater habitat and protect a specific or range of freshwater species. In those cases, monitoring the habitat and range of the target species as well as the local & regional context (as illustrated by the video below) will be important.

How is freshwater biodiversity monitored?

Biomonitoring methods for water classification according to the directive the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/CE are ranked as follows. Read M E Conti (2008) for details:

1. methods based on the composition and abundance of macrobenthic communities;
2. methods based on composition, abundance and age structure of water fauna;
3. methods based on composition and abundance of water flora (macrophytes, phytoplankton and periphyton);
4. methods based on the whole river ecosystem.